


I Need You Like Soju On A Cold Night

by peach_highlites



Series: Midnight Snacks [3]
Category: K-pop, Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-11-02
Packaged: 2019-01-28 15:17:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12609524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peach_highlites/pseuds/peach_highlites
Summary: "With a face like that, why would you even need to be good at anything? Oh now you’re upset? What right do you have to be upset?”Seongwu hates being judged for his looks. Daniel hates it too.





	I Need You Like Soju On A Cold Night

**Author's Note:**

> He's got looks that books take pages to tell  
> He's got a face to make you fall on your knees  
> He's got money in the bank to thank and I guess  
> You could think he's living at ease  
> Like lovers on the open shore -- What's the matter?  
> When you're sitting there with so much more -- What's the matter?  
> While you're wondering what the hell to be  
> Are you wishing you were ugly like me?  
> \- Blame It On The Girls - Mika

“My life sucks.” Seongwu says aloud as he downs his fifteenth shot. Maybe a little too loud because Daniel, who is beside him, is staring at him intently. It’s Tuesday, closer to dawn than midnight, and he and Seongwu are sitting at a table in a street food tent near their dorm fighting off the chill with soju. It’s cold in more ways than one tonight when they decided to sneak out. 

The two of them had been filming all day and into the night. They really should have gone straight to sleep. And they would have had Daniel not observed the pronounced way Seongwu’s shoulders were sagging, the tense set of his jaw when he wasn’t speaking, and way his hands seemed to move way too much even when he wasn’t using them. The younger decided they needed to decompress.

Daniel pours more alcohol into their shot glasses.  They’re on their fourth bottle now. No where near their limits having shared all of them, but it’s been a long day. They’re tired. His watches as his hyung opens and closes his mouth, seemingly giving up on a train of thought. After a long beat, Daniel looks away, picks up his shot and draws it to his lips.

“I hate that everyone assumes that it doesn’t.”

“It doesn’t what?” he turns to him again, tilting his head.

“Suck. Everyone assumes that my life, our lives, don’t suck.”

He can’t argue with Seongwu there. He nods and drinks his shot.

“And it’s not even the netizens this time though.”

He snorts and nods his assent. At this point though, and the nature of their rise to fame being what it was, negative comments on the internet, though sometimes still stinging, were too much of constant to be the cause of his boyfriend’s disposition tonight. He knew exactly why he was like this tonight.

While his hyung was not necessarily the most upbeat person in the world, he could often speak of difficulties with a lightness in his voice that normally meant he could laugh it off. Tonight there was an exasperation in Seongwu’s voice that Daniel hated hearing. “The guest on the show earlier today…” 

Yes. That. Daniel quickly poured and downed another shot. He grips his glass tightly and nearly slams it back down the table.

_“It must be nice being so handsome. I bet you get away with everything, even not practicing.”_

Seongwu worked hard. He always did. When his fellow guest made those sorts of comments at first he laughed it off. 

_"Wahhhh with a face like that, why would you even need to be good at anything? You have all these CFs and endorsements so you're not only handsome, you're probably very, very rich too!”_

It wasn’t so bad. He had even played along thinking that would make it seem funnier for the shoot. 

_“You’re in charge of gags? Who ever heard of a good-looking gagman? Just stand there. You already have looks to make the girls run rabid and chase after you. Seriously you already have an unfair advantage. Stop using tactics you don't need.”_

After a little while, it started to grate at him, but Seongwu did what he always did when someone underestimated him - He worked harder. Did everything in his power to show he was capable and when he could, he excelled.

_“Yah why are you making the rest of them look bad by winning? You have that face; you’ve already won. Give others a chance. Honestly, these selfish handsome kids are too much sometimes.”_

Today though, anytime he did anything good, the other guest would use it to demoralize him. Towards the end of the day he didn’t even care anymore about anything including trying to complete the task let alone getting affirmation or approval, he just wanted to get it over with.

_“Ah so he couldn’t find the hidden items for the most important final game. He was winning all day, but when it finally counted, he was really kind of worthless. I knew it god had to be fair somehow. There’s something even Mr. Handsome cannot do. Oh now you’re upset? What right do you have to be upset?”_

At first it was just teasing. The guests’ tone of voice was playful and it wasn’t anything they hadn’t heard before. As the day went on and the playfulness disappeared, it became apparent that the this guy had it in for Seongwu. Laying on jibe after jibe and laying it on thick. The other guests were either too preoccupied or too scared of becoming targets themselves to say anything. The MC didn’t seem to pick up on the venom in those words and just laughed along and joined in on occasion. He tried to butt in a few times when the other guest was letting his bandmate have it; He tried to contradict him, to change the topic, to dispel the bullshit, but to no avail. He could sense himself getting closer and closer to getting outwardly angry. He reigned it in as best he could, admittedly for the sake of his band’s image and his own. And also because right when he felt like he was about to explode in an attempt to protect his bandmate, Seongwu’s hand found his and squeezed telling him not to do it.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything to help. That guy was an asshole. Fuck how long he’s been in the industry. He’s a shitty person and he shouldn’t have said any of that.” He was starting to get worked up again, “He probably has some sort of complex. I mean he wasn’t super nice to everyone else, but he fixated on your looks the whole day. You were amazing today and honestly you shouldn’t-“

Seongwu looks at him then. His face fidgets a bit. Mouth corners pulled tight then released. His brows are furrowed the entire time. “Niel,” His boyfriend lets out a sigh as he lays his hand on Daniel’s forearm on the bar, “Don’t say I shouldn’t let it get to me or that he didn’t mean it like that. And don’t just say it was my looks because I’ve gotten enough of that today. It’s not that I don’t appreciate what you just said…I just, I know I didn’t do anything wrong today. Why wasn’t that enough? ”

He didn’t have the answer to that. Outside of the commentary during the talk parts of the show, Seongwu performed beautifully. He nailed almost every challenge. He worked well with his team. He was funny, insightful, accommodating, all of it. Yet here he was being reduced to a just pretty face. 

“I’ve always hated it,” Seongwu began as he refilled his glass, “When people see me, my face and all of that, and think that that’s all I am.” He picks up his glass and turns it in his fingers as he slowly articulates his thoughts, “What’s worse is, they make me feel like I wasn’t allowed not to like it. Like they had every right to tell me all of this bull and that if I took offense, how I felt wasn’t valid.” He takes his shot and exhales before continuing. The burn of the alcohol doing little to allay what his disappointment, “I mean I don’t need someone to sing my praises or coddle me. I don’t need them to outright say they’ve changed their minds. I just, I just want-”

“I know.”

“You know?”

“Being called ugly half your life makes you used to the whole judgement thing.”

Seongwu’s eyes flare at that. “You are not ugly. You’re not and I-“

“Hyung,” Daniel laughs softly, breathily, “I don’t need someone to sing my praises either.”

“Sorry,”

“Stop it. Don’t apologize,” They both drink and Daniel waves over the lady who runs the street stall and pays her after he empties the last of the soju into their glasses. He looks at the man across from him. He sees the man that held his hand when he was so scared of elimination. At the man who to supported him when he wanted to lead for the first time. At the man who, rooted for him even when only thirty-five people out of a couple hundred picked him. At the man who had only known him for all of two days before saying “I want us to debut together.” He looked at Seongwu, who lived and breathed this job and did everything he could to be the best he could be, for himself, for the group that he was was apart of, and for Daniel.

“I know how hard you work, hyung. I know that you didn’t get to be this good at dancing, or at singing, or even at speaking in public without putting in the effort. I’m not saying ‘good work’ or anything, because that’s what we’re supposed to do; we’re supposed to learn and get better. We’re supposed to do all of this because it’s our job. What I’m saying is-“

“You’ve worked hard.” Seongwu looks straight into his eyes, squinting a little, “You’ve worked hard.” 

“Yeah. You have. Seongwu-hyung, you worked hard today.” It takes a little while longer, but then it happens. A shift. He watches as the tension bleeds out of his friend. Finally. Watches as he nods and lifts the glass to his lips. Daniel sees the corners of his mouth lift before he takes his final drink of the night.

They get up to leave and Daniel holds the tent flap open for his hyung. They start to walk home and they walk a block away down the deserted streets before Seongwu slips an arm around Daniel's and pulls him in. 

“Thank you.” He says against his lips, "you worked hard today too." He brings them together and Daniel slings and arm around his waist when he feels Seongwu smile as they kiss.

  


 

 

**Author's Note:**

> All my fics are about them eating or drinking and they end the same way. I seriously need to break this pattern, but anyway hope you liked this~ I've been living for supportive bffs!OngNiel lately and somehow all those fluffy feelings turned into angst.


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